Use Police Resources Responsibly

PRESS STATEMENT BY SIVARASA RASIAH

STOP HARASSING MP’s ;  USE POLICE RESOURCES RESPONSIBLY

I was summoned  by the Subang Jaya Police to be questioned today with regard to my involvement in raising the issue of the death in custody of Chang Chin Te  on or around 15 January in the USJ 8 police station lockup. Chang is the son of the Ketua Kampung for the Subang New Village Mr Chang Chan Man. Subang New Village is within Subang Parliament consitutency – in fact the constituency is named after the village.

The background to the case is as follows. Chang was arrested on or about January 10. He was reported dead in the lockup to the family four days later. His widow Lim Wei Ni reported seeing bruises on his face and body in the mortuary and when she took photographs was ordered by police in the mortuary and hospital staff to delete the photographs. The family was understandably suspicious about the circumstances of the death. 

Myself and YB Gobind Singh advised that a second-post mortem would be helpful and we assisted the family to present a demand to Bukit Aman to allow the second post mortem.  We were forced to go to Bukit Aman because the OCPD of Subang Jaya ACP Yahya Ramli and the Selangor CPO had refused our requests on behalf of the family to give written permission for the second post mortem.

As this was a police case, government hospitals take the unfortunate position that they will not undertake any further action without written permission in the form of a Police Form 61 signed by the police.  The request by the family was not enough. Regretably government hospitals still take this position although knowing that in death in custody cases, the police are in a position of conflict of interest and have in the past blocked requests for second post mortems such as in Kugan’s case.

I deplore today’s resource and time wasting exercise when valuable time of senior police officials are deployed in an unnecessary harassment exercise against opposition MPs taking up issues on behalf of citizens in their constituency.  I am informed that YB Gobind Singh was subjected to a similar interrogation last week on this same incident.

I call upon the IGP to ensure that the valuable resources of the police force are not misused in this fashion. OCPD’s or CPO’s  or for that matter any police officer who initiate such acts of harassment should be taken to task and disciplined.
The resources of the police force should be focused on crime fighting. A senior ASP acting on orders is wasting his time recording statements from YB Gobind and myself and conducting an investigation into alleged criminal offences conducted by us when we were in fact carrying out duties as elected representatives.

There are far more serious issues in this country that warrant investigation. A very good example would be the recent public revelation by PI Bala’s lawyer, Americk Singh Sidhu that Tan Sri Cecil Abraham, a senior lawyer, had confirmed to him that PI Bala’s second SD was done by him on the instructions of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.

This directly implicates the Prime Minister, his brother Nazim Tun Razak and all others involved in the commission of the offence of fabricating false evidence and suborning perjury – and even worse, the possibility that this offence was committed to keep hidden the names of those who directed Azilah and Sirul to commit the Altantuya murder. The resources of PDRM should be deployed to a reopening of this case.

Sivarasa Rasiah
Member of Parliament for Subang
Member, Majlis PImpinan Pusat and Biro Politik, Parti Keadilan Rakyat